Almost half of the revenue generated from mineral mining on federal lands comes back to Utah. It’s typically used to build community centers and roads in the rural counties where the mining’s done. But lawmakers want to use the money now to transport Utah products into foreign markets.

Environmentalists are reminding the Bureau of Land Management that public opposition to expanding a coal strip mine in Kane County hasn’t gone away.

The Sierra Club and other groups went to the BLM office in Salt Lake City to deliver more than 45-thousand public comments opposing the expansion of the coal mine. The mine currently operates on private land near the town of Alton. The agency is about to issue a supplemental environmental impact statement on the plan that could allow it to expand onto public land in the same area.